The Car Cult From Rumpsville
Excerpt originally publish April 24 1961:
To many persons the automobile is a status symbol. To 1.5 million hot rodders, however, the car is the cornerstone of a cult with its own lingo, totems and heaven. The cats range from wild to mild, but the fuzzy world they live in can be far out, man, far out.
— Robert H. Boyle
In the last few years the hot rodders, who used to play "chicken" down the center lines of the nation's highways, have virtually disappeared from view.
Most motorists assume that the rods broke down, and the boys (if they lived) grew up and the fad died out. Not so. Most of the rodders have left the road for the drag strips, but they have proliferated.
Today a legion of cats shack and shuck in Rumpsville, which is in the Holy Land and strictly scooby-doo (scooby dooby to a square like you). Rumpsville-Rumpville, depending on how far out you feel-is the hot rodder's heaven, and to a student of contemporary American culture it is a place of fascination.
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